New domestic broadcasting deals to take CA in billionaire league

Sydney, Oct 26(ANI): Cricket Australia's media rights tally is likely to enter the exclusive billionaire league once new domestic broadcasting contracts are finalised this summer.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, in a development that will put cricket in the same financial stratosphere as Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL), whose latest five-year television partnerships have touched the billion mark, cricket's overall take from worldwide and local broadcast arrangements is also set to hit 10 figures.

Television rights income represent about 80 per cent of all CA revenue and it is anticipated that pot of gold will increase significantly thanks to the new Australian broadcast agreements, with Channel Nine and Fox Sports negotiating to retain their rights, the paper added.

Nine's current seven-year, 315 million dollar deal, the last struck personally by the late Kerry Packer, expires in March, but after turning to outside expertise and analysing cricket's real value to a network, CA is confident the year-on-year figure will rise steeply, it added.

The new domestic rights contract will be based over five years, as are the AFL and NRL deals, and could be wrapped up by Nine during its exclusive negotiating period, which runs to December 31, it said.

The paper further said, CA is predicted to tip the magic one billion number when its new domestic deals are added to its overseas income. Its contract with Indian broadcaster ESPN Star Sports is the most lucrative source of revenue, easily exceeding the money Nine pays to screen the game. (ANI)